I guess we need a little more background matter on the whole Kalashnikov fable.

Hugo Schmeisser was one of the preeminent small arms designers of the 20th century, as was his father.

Hugo Schmeisser was the father of the Mkb 42(H) (Maschine Carbines)which would later become the MP43/44 ak StG44 "assault rifle".

It has been reported that a number of prototype Mkb42's were airdropped to the German forces at the Kholm Pocket in 1942. It has to be reasonable to think that at least some of those weapons could have been captured. It's been stated that an earlier model of the StG44 was demonstrated to high ranking Soviets and members of the small arms people's committee.

Though Kalashnikov claims to have started working on designs as early as 1941, the AK design is alleged to have commenced several years later. So where does Hugo Schmeisser fit into to all of this?

At the tail end of the war Hugo and his brother were captured by Allied forces and interrogated for weeks and then let go. Once the Russians moved in Hugo was snatched up again. The Russians captured technical data, as well as components to build up multiple weapons for research.

Hugo Schmeisser, Kurt Horn, Werner Gruner, and Oscar Schink were all shipped off to Russia and worked with the design teams for the AK47. This is significant because the Russians being the stupid peasants they are, had issues with mass production using stamping technology and all of these guys were well-known for their pioneering and work with Gustloff and Grossfuss. It should be noted that Werner Gruner was the designer behind the MG42.

I think that there can be little doubt that the AK had some serious influence on the AK47 and the German designers contributed significantly to it's overall success.

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"The Armies of our ancestors were lucky, in that they were not trailed by a second army of pencil pushers".